Disclosure Details

Taser use 1113/16

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your e mail dated 10 October 2016 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Please provide data on the number of times officers in your force have used Tasers on people aged 17 years old and younger in (i) 2015 and (ii) from 1st January 2016 to 1st October 2016.

For each period, please provide the data broken down by age, ethnicity and category of highest use (ie Drawn, Aimed, Arched, Red Dotted, Drive Stun, Angled Drive Stun and Fired).

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Operations Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

(i) 2015

Age Ethnicity Use

17 W1 Aimed

17 W1 Red dot

17 B1 Red dot

(ii) 2016

Age Ethnicity Use

17 W1 Red dot

16 W1 Discharge

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.